Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

7 reviews

unluckycat13's review

The author is a TERF, this is a TERF book. Not to undermine the honestly good work and important information in this book, but you can't remove it from the author's views. While it starts out seeming reasonable enough-- I think it's understandable even if not great to not separate sex and gender-- the author eventually begins to build her argument into women being an immutable biologically separate organism with most things in life attributed purely to biology. Of course there's no proof of this because of the data gap. The studies will surely show she's right though, as they always say. 

The book does start out acknowledging queer and disabled people, and it does talk about other countries with a non dismissive and non bigoted attitude, however the author is very quick to paint groups of people (such as western women, or British women) with a singular brush. Despite admitting that the so called standard male doesn't represent men in general, she's very argumentative in favor of a standard female model. It's hard to untangle her personal views on sex and gender from the rest of the book and the more you begin to think about it, the worse it gets. 

I would generally not recommend this book, and while it is a nice organization of some studies I have heard most of them before elsewhere. 

Being a book about sexism, you can expect a TW warning for basically literally every topic, albeit only passingly. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Transphobia, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Stalking, Miscarriage, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Hate crime, Gun violence, Violence, Trafficking, Racism, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Ableism, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, and Medical trauma

billie_churchill's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Sexism, Misogyny, and Medical trauma

Minor: Medical content, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abortion, Gaslighting, Infertility, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Death, Genocide, Ableism, and Sexual harassment

mdwsn27's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

4.5

I really wish there was an updated; post- pandemic, gender-neutral bathroom, Trump era, promotion of trans rights... version that incorporated greater recognition of intersectionality. I loved the contents of this book, but feel like there could be a broader focus on any data bias in the context of non, cishet white-male identit(ies). At points it felt a lot like a pure lit-review, but was informative nonetheless. A great and important read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny

Moderate: Pedophilia, Deportation, Death, Suicide attempt, Racism, Chronic illness, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, Drug use, Classism, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Child death, Slavery, Physical abuse, Murder, Gaslighting, Abortion, War, Terminal illness, Violence, Trafficking, Domestic abuse, Stalking, Sexual assault, Grief, Car accident, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, and Forced institutionalization

chaos_and_chapters's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Sexism, Misogyny, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Sexual violence, Violence, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Murder, Rape, War, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Slavery, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Genocide, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Racism, Eating disorder, Blood, and Body shaming

ruthmoog's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective

4.5

Brilliant book that clearly explains the impact of excluding women's experience. It doesn't ignore the experience of non-white women either, but does acknowledge that although women and female data are missing, so too are data for non-white women plus pregnant and menstruateing women to a greater extent. Trans women however are not referenced at all.

It's very statistic heavy, and relentless, but a must read imo.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Minor: Classism, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Alcohol, Car accident, Dementia, Genocide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Rape, War, Abortion, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, and Cancer

nytephoenyx's review

informative medium-paced

2.25

My friends, I really wanted to like this book. I like the concept of it a lot – using data to prove that statistically the world is designed in such a way that women are deliberately overlooked. There were some interesting statistics in the book, but unfortunately I don’t think this one holds up. And that’s really sad, because even though data changes rapidly, its not the data that makes this book feel outdated – it’s the language.

Even before I looked up Caroline Criado Perez for my Problematic Authors page, the language used in Invisible Women was getting to me. Criado Perez very stubbornly separates our world into binaries to push her point, and that simply is not an accurate picture of the world. I only recall her referring specifically to Black women once in Invisible Women, and I don’t recall any specific references separated by race, orientation, or other data other than than that. One of Criado Perez’s prime arguments about data bias is that there is a data gap – we don’t segregate the data by gender being one of the main factors she argues. And yet, Criado Perez doesn’t bother to segregate the data in an inclusive way herself.

It really bothers me when someone is complaining the world is not inclusive when they are deliberately sidelining other minorities. It’s the same thing that happened with women’s suffrage and it’s a very selfish, unjust way to go about seeking change. Everyone or no one.

On top of not acknowledging data differences by race, orientation, age, and other factors, Criado Perez inserts a lot of her own opinions in Invisible Women. A non-fiction book using science to illustrate systemic flaws is not the place to add outraged personal stories – it lowers the effectiveness of the data. Instead of feeling illuminating, Invisible Women felt like it was pushing a personal agenda. And I say that as someone who completely agrees with the core, bare-bones principle. There is a lack of effort to collect diverse responses and respond appropriately to new data by building a system that is inclusive and supportive for all. Between personal interjections and consistently using inconclusive studies and leaning very heavily into experiences in the United States and United Kingdom, Invisible Women fails to present as an objective, informational book.

Given Criado Perez’s insistence on ignoring the experiences of transgender women as part of her study, Invisible Women was already a questionable read. Having finished it, I find myself outraged for the wrong reasons. I think everyone should be aware of data gaps and how they snowball to create a world where individuals are asked to change themselves to fit a broken system. But I don’t think Invisible Women is the place to start that conversation.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Pregnancy

eloiseisreading's review against another edition

informative inspiring slow-paced

3.0

A reasonably thorough review of studies into gender/sex discrimination and a discussion of the lack of gender/sex related data in a number of fields and areas of life. 
Although mentioned briefly from time to time, the author doesn’t go into much detail into the intersectionalities of oppression and discrimination (e.g. race, sexuality, disability, class, etc), which I think is a real shortcoming of the book. I also find the author’s definitions of sex and gender, and her constant switching between the two, a little uncomfortable. Additionally, considering trans women and non-binary AFAB people are amongst the most ‘invisible women’ in society, they didn’t get a mention at all. I think this is worth knowing before going into the book; although this is a feminist book, it isn’t explicitly inclusive of all women and minority gendered people. 
Additionally, I felt the author didn’t do enough to unpack and distrust the everyday sexist ideologies of gender stereotypes and heteronormativity. 
Overall, I think this is a decent beginner’s book exploring gender/sex discrimination and gendered data science. I think it’s a worthy read when combined with more diverse feminist literature. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual violence